L/Cpl WJ Weatherley

[shinglma]

Eighty-nine years ago, at about this time, Lance-Corporal William Johnson Weatherley of the 8th King’s Royal Rifle Corps was killed in action in France.

He was my great-uncle.

Willie (as he was known) was my grandmother’s nearest sibling and his loss must have hit her particularly hard. I remember as a child being aware of his absence from those who did grow old.

I was aware too of his absence by the photograph of his grave in France. A photograph in an Edwardian picture frame, on a table in the parlour of a family home in Northumberland.

The war memorial held his name. The parish church held his photograph. However the family grave did not retain his remains. Willie was buried in France.

Around five years ago, I decided on a whim to visit ‘the battlefields’. I hoped to learn more about the Great War and picture the places Willie may have been. I went on a tour led by Richard Holmes.

We were to spend a night in Arras where I knew Willie to be buried. I recall asking Professor Holmes whether it would be feasible to visit Willie’s grave in the Faubourg D’Amiens cemetery during a lunch break.

Professor Holmes was kind enough to take me there personally.

Since then I have endeavoured to find out more about my great-uncle’s experience of the great war. From the battalion war diary and family papers I now know of the circumstances surrounding his death. On the night of 1st July 1916 the 8th King’s Royal Rifle Corps were in the K2 trenches outside Roclincourt near Arras.

Though regarded as a quiet sector, both sides had been involved in a campaign to try to blow each other off the face of the earth. Late on the 1st of July 1916 the Germans exploded a mine under the British lines. A scramble for the crater ensued and during this William Johnson Weatherley was killed in action. He was buried the following day in the cemetery in Arras.

His grave forms one of a line of those killed in this action. Others are named on the Arras memorial to the missing or buried in the cemeteries in the Arras Sector close to Roclincourt.

With humble thanks and in memoriam.

Mike

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